Information and commentary about the struggle for democracy in the African kingdom of Swaziland

Monday, May 17, 2010

‘SWAZI OBSERVER’ HAS NO SHAME

The Swazi Observer, the newspaper in effect owned by King Mswati III,is fast becoming the newspaper with no shame.

As the world has been learning over the past day of the brutality of the Swazi police in wrecking the funeral of democracy activist Sipho Jele, the Observercovers up the truth.

In contrast to the reporting of the Times of Swaziland, the kingdom’s only independent daily newspaper, which called the Swazi Police the ‘enemy of the state’, the Observer puts the blame for the cancellation of the funeral on protesters who turned the funeral ‘into a political rally’.

The Observer says, ‘The police came to Jele’s homestead at Ncabaneni and expressed concern that the funeral seemed to have been hijacked and was being used to perpetrate conduct and statements that breached the Suppression of Terrorism Act of 2008.

‘The political activists were adamant that the police should leave them alone and in the end caused abandonment of the funeral in the wee hours of yesterday morning.’

The Observerwhich is on recordas saying it’s role in life is to support King Mswati, sub-Saharan Africa’s last absolute monarch, said ‘the police, who seemed prepared for any eventuality, took strategic positions and insisted that it was wrong to turn the occasion into a political rally to instigate public disorder’.